Inside Danish Designer Børge Mogensen’s House

Børge Mogensen is one of my favourite Danish designers for the way he combines aesthetics and functionality.

Mogensen, in collaboration with Grethe Meyer, introduced the idea of building shelving and storage units as part of a room, rather than purchasing and placing them in a space.

In the project ‘Boligens Byggeskabe’ (Construction Cupboards of the House) Mogensen did studies to determine the standard measurements for common objects, such as cutlery and shirts, and how many of each item the average person owned. With this information he developed a set of figures for the base width and depth of drawers and shelves, and his information tables were published as a manual on building storage systems.

In 1958, Mogensen moved to Soløsevej north of Copenhagen. While Mogensen died in 1972, his widow Alice kept things as they were in their home until she passed away forty years later, in 2012.

The photos below are of the home before it went up for sale. As you can see everything fits perfectly in its place.

While Mogensen is well known for his almost scientific analysis of the functionality of furniture, he is also well known for his designs ‘The Spokeback Sofa’ designed in 1945, ‘The Hunting chair’ from 1950 and ‘The Spanish Chair’ from 1959.